It's So Difficult

by Raúl Nieto Guridi, Lawrence Schimel (Translator)

Overview

A school day can be so overwhelming: so many people, so many noises, so many things to remember. Grown-ups say it’ll get easier with time, but even saying hello is incredibly hard. Thank goodness for comforts like math, for anything that can relax a restless mind. Maybe this time a few words will come out at last…

An empathetic look at anxiety and overstimulation, It’s So Difficult follows a child throughout the challenging routines of a single day. Even the smallest step forward can be an enormous triumph. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802855848
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	972,723
Product dimensions:	7.88(w) x 10.66(h) x (d)
Lexile:	500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Raúl Nieto Guridi has created many books for children, including The King of Nothing (New York Review Books), A Drop of the Sea (Kids Can), and The Day I Became a Bird (Kids Can). His works have been selected for special mention for the Bologna Ragazzi Award and for inclusion in the USBBY Outstanding International Books list. It’s So Difficult was shaped by Guridi’s experiences with students as a secondary school teacher. He lives in Spain.

Lawrence Schimel is an award-winning author who writes in both Spanish and English. He has published over 50 books for kids. He lives in Madrid, Spain, where in addition to his own writing, he works as a literary translator.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/11/2022

“When I leave the house, everything is so difficult for me. I feel a prickling that won’t go away, and every step I take is a triumph.” Based on Guridi’s experiences as an educator, the author-illustrator details the internality of a largely nonverbal child narrator experiencing a school day. As the white child walks out the front door, rides a bus, attends class, and heads back home, earnest first-person lines render experiences of sensory sensitivity and overload, including around a shouting figure and “greetings, laughter, fathers and mothers saying goodbye.” Calming actions are also detailed, involving counting, calculating, noticing the city’s shapes and colors, and taking the space the child needs (“My mother always tells me not to rush myself”). Through-out, scratchy outlines and mixed-media art foregrounds evoke the figure’s encounters, as in the much-reproduced image of one open-mouthed, speaking face expressing a relentless barrage of sound, making for a perceptive portrait of one child’s experience. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

03/01/2022

Gr 2–4—For some people, the enormity and chaos of the outside world are hard enough to navigate; participating is an even greater challenge. An unnamed boy is preparing for another day of school; he passes the same neighbors and gets on the same bus as usual, but despite his familiarity with them, he never speaks. As the intensity of the world increases, he shrinks into himself, finding solace in numbers and calculations. Even the smallest of interactions is a huge triumph for the boy, and each brave decision brings him closer to overcoming his anxieties. The English translation of this picture book, originally written in Spanish, conveys the intensity of the character's emotions through short, intentional phrasing. The words appear in white font against a black background, never interfering with the illustrations but taking on a unique personality because of their dynamic placement. Illustrations, rendered in a limited palette, include many scribbles, pencil lines, and a variety of human appearances—usually people are white, but there is a brown gentleman, and in the classroom, everyone is blue. This decision provides a visual representation of the chaos the boy sees in the world, especially as he exists as an outline of a person within it. Markedly artistic in its approach, this book encourages contemplative study as important moments occur within many of the images. VERDICT Ideal for the SEL shelves, this book offers a thought-provoking story that gives a voice to children, on the spectrum or not, who experience social anxiety. It also encourages even the smallest victories.—Mary Lanni

School Library Journal